The Morning After: The PlayStation 5 is pretty big

Finally, it’s time to actually play with the PS5 -- not that Sony’s suffering as the rest of us wait.

No matter whether you store it vertically or horizontally, it’s a big darn console, supported by a new, cumbersome display plate that helps keep the beastly thing stable.

Sony and Microsoft have some stringent coverage restrictions before the new consoles launch next month, so for now, you can read all about the imposing physicality of the PlayStation 5 and the improved experience of its DualSense controller.

According to Senior Editor Jessica Conditt, the new controller has better trigger buttons and a wider grip. Demonstrating the demo title Astro’s Playroom, she added that the new haptic functions are pretty impressive but we’ll need to wait and see whether major game makers think the same. Deeper gameplay impressions are coming soon -- once we’re able to share them.

-Mat

‘Cyberpunk 2077’ is delayed, again

Now it’s a holiday title.

CD Projekt Red has delayed Cyberpunk 2077 once again, with the game now expecting to land on December 10th -- a delay of 21 days.

“Most likely, there are many emotions and questions in your heads, so, first and foremost, please accept our humble apologies,” the studio said on Twitter. CD Projekt Red says the delay is due to the challenge of launching the title on what amounts to nine different platforms while everyone on the team works from home.

The game was originally scheduled for release on April 26th.
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The first phone from XDA-Developers can run Android, LineageOS or Ubuntu Touch OS

A nerdy phone for nerdy people.

In a nice callback to early Android devices like the Motorola Droid, the F(x)tec Pro1-X includes a 66-button QWERTY keyboard. It still, however, has the same aging Snapdragon 835 chip and 3,200mAh battery as its predecessor — though the new model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.

The Pro1-X is launching via Indiegogo, in a partnership with the mobile software tweaking community XDA Developers. “The main reason we created the Pro1-X was to offer our users a choice. Every phone launched either runs Android or iOS, and even the best Android phones require rooting to be able to truly customize the experience,” said XDA Chief Content Officer Nirave Gondhia.

It will cost $899 when it goes on sale in March, but if you back the crowdfunding campaign there are a few levels of entry with lower prices.
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Hackers briefly swap out a page on the Trump campaign site

Someone 'seized' a page on DonaldJTrump.com and threatened to release classified info.

With less than a week to go before the US presidential election, election security is a hot-button topic, and hackers have already struck. Briefly, the About page on DonaldJTrump.com was replaced by an unknown party.

On the page, it threatened to “discredit” Trump as president and said the attackers would choose to share or keep secret their incriminating data based on which option received more votes in the form of cryptocurrency sent to their accounts, as well as a supposed encryption key to verify their identity. The page was apparently up for around thirty minutes. Tim Murtaugh, Director of Communications for Trump’s re-election campaign, said that they were working with law enforcement to investigate the source of the attack.
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NVIDIA RTX 3070 review: A hot rod GPU for the practical gamer

A $499 card that's on the level of a two-year old $999 GPU.

NVIDIA claims the RTX 3000 GPUs are its biggest generational leap ever, and that’s evident with the 3070. When it came to 4K/HDR gaming, Devindra Hardawar found that the new RTX 3070 “practically mirrored” NVIDIA’s older 2080 Ti in benchmarks -- impressive since the new card costs half as much out of the gate.

It’s also fairly close to the former champ when using ray-tracing, so if that’s your reason for upgrading, you may want to consider the more powerful (and more expensive) RTX 3080. Now the only question is what kind of price/performance parity we’ll see from AMD’s Radeon 6000 GPUs.
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T-Mobile’s TVision is a cable-cutting package for its mobile customers

A staged rollout starts for some T-Mobile subscribers on November 1st.

As part of its latest UnCarrier initiative, T-Mobile has launched TVision, a series of over-the-top streaming services that promise to make the process of ditching cable as cheap and as simple as possible.

TVision Live starts at $40/month for more than 30 channels, including ABC, Bravo, CNN, NBC, ESPN and more. For an additional $10 a month, you can tap into TVision Live+, a sports-centric package that includes The NFL Network, ESPNU and The Golf Channel. At the top of the live streaming hierarchy is TVision Live Zone, which includes all of those other channels plus NFL Red Zone.
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Roku Streambar review: Making old TVs feel new again

A small sound bar, 4K HDR streamer and Bluetooth speaker all-in-one.

Shockingly, the combination of a Roku streaming player and a competent sound bar makes for an easy TV upgrade. If, like Valentina Palladino, you have a seven-year-old Vizio TV you’re still using, then this can reinvigorate the experience without taking up space or complicating things. And at $130, it’s a relatively cheap add-on to your existing setup, whether it's in the living room or elsewhere.
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